Michigan woman pleads no contest in cancer scam

SANDUSKY, Mich. (AP) — A Michigan woman who claimed for years that she had cancer has pleaded no contest to fraud.

Sara Ylen (WHY'-lin) appeared Monday in Sanilac County court. A no-contest plea is treated as a conviction for the purposes of a sentence.

Ylen gained widespread sympathy and public generosity after she agreed to appear in a 2003 Port Huron Times Herald series about being a rape victim.

In 2009, the newspaper reported that Ylen was near death from cancer. But Mercy Hospice cut her off in 2011 when tests showed her life wasn't in peril. Her insurer had paid about $100,000 for the service.

On Friday, Ylen will be sentenced in St. Clair County for a conviction of making a false report of rape against two men in 2012.

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